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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22725289">chocolates</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/'>Anonymous</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Sword Art Online (Anime &amp; Manga)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, F/M, I'm Sorry, M/M, Valentine's Day</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 16:22:46</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,926</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22725289</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Kirito attempts to confess with Valentine's chocolates... or to at the very least to get a White Day present out of it.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Eugeo/Alice Zuberg | Alice Synthesis Thirty, Eugeo/Kirigaya Kazuto | Kirito</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>46</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Anonymous</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>chocolates</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Kirito adjusted his bag, nervously jiggling in place. He’d made some vain effort to dress up for today, but since they had to wear the school uniform with little possibility to customize it and his hair always simply laid flat on his head, there wasn’t much difference compared to usually.</p><p>“Good morning, Kirito!”</p><p>Despite knowing better, Kirito still startled, his heartbeat speeding up viciously while his stomach twisted further into itself and for a second Kirito wondered whether he was going to actually throw up. “Go-Good morning, Eugeo.“</p><p>Kirito tried to send him his usual grin, however he must have failed because a frown formed on Eugeo’s face, his best friend leaning closer until there was only half-a-head separating them. “Are you all right, Kirito? Your face is red and and you are acting weird.”</p><p>“I’m not acting weird.”</p><p>“I’m sure your mother won’t mind you staying home one day. You look horrible.”</p><p>Kirito jerked back, hurt despite himself. He knew Eugeo hadn’t meant anything by it but he <em>had </em>made an effort to look better today. Those damn eye bags… he should have asked Suguha for make-up after all. Should he give Eugeo the chocolate now? But the mood was all wrong.</p><p>“I’m fine”, he refuted instead of saying anything useful, cursing himself for being a coward. Mustering Kirito for some more seconds, Eugeo reluctantly shelved the topic for now and they went off to school. Kirito gripped his bag tighter than necessarily during the way-- just in case somebody ran into them and all of his hard work smacked to the ground. He’d even asked Asuna for help and there was no way he was giving Eugeo broken pieces. So there was definitely nothing weird about him clutching his bag like it was his lifeline.</p><p>In reality his hands were shaking so badly that Eugeo would definitely notice if he loosened his grip even a little bit.</p><p>Despite sporadically glancing at Eugeo, he couldn’t bring it over himself to start a conversation and Eugeo seemed satisfied with walking to the school in silence, only bumping into Kirito once by accident. His apologetic smile was so cute, Kirito thought he might actually die. His heart that he had thought had been working full throttle already had sped up even more and he was starting to feel dizzy... or maybe that was the lack of air getting to him since he had been trying to breathe as quietly as possible.</p><p>On their way to school he saw Asuna who smiled encouragingly at him, Yuuki next to her showing off the chocolate she had gotten from Asuna to anyone who would listen to her. It was nice to see her doing better, especially after her recent set-back but Kirito only felt the hurdle in front of him rise when looking at her. He thought he had done a pretty decent job but what if Eugeo didn’t like it after all? He planned to pass it off as obligatory chocolate if Eugeo didn’t react positively but considering how nervous he was, he wondered whether he’d even manage to do so.</p><p>Perhaps he should give up on this year.</p><p>By next year he’d surely have a better plan in place and also a better inkling of where Eugeo’s feelings laid and then he also wouldn’t look like a panda with fever. Eugeo had said he looked horrible, so surely this wasn’t the best time to confess.</p><p>Kirito quickly glanced at Eugeo who was smiling faintly while greeting Silica.</p><p>But what if he got together with somebody else by then? Eugeo was pretty popular in school and Kirito was sure that if he hadn’t been so fixated on Alice during their youth, he’d already have a girlfriend. He wasn’t so worried about Eugeo falling for one of their classmates since Eugeo saw himself as too old for them but recently he’d seen Alice and Eugeo getting closer-- which was frankly the reason why he had decided to go for this ridiculous plan.</p><p>During their time in Underworld Kirito had had the excuse of the taboo index stopping him but even after leaving Underworld together with Eugeo and Alice, he still hadn’t made a single move. He had tried to flirt but because he feared rejection, he’d always just done so jokingly, and while Eugeo hadn’t reacted negatively per say, he’d never really flirted back either.</p><p>This was a good chance as any to show that his feelings were genuine while hopefully being a nice introduction to Valentine’s Day. He’d thought that even if he ended up having to play it off as another joke or obligatory chocolate, Eugeo would still enjoy getting chocolate, but seeing two chocolate packages tumble out of Eugeo’s locker made him realize that he had made one fatal error during his planning; he’d greatly underestimated how popular Eugeo was. If it went on like this, Eugeo wouldn’t even think anything of accepting Kirito’s chocolate and they’d be back at square one.</p><p>However instead of speaking up and dragging Eugeo off to some private place, Kirito found himself unable to voice even a single word before they were already at the classroom. To his horror, Eugeo got even more chocolate as soon as they entered and Kirito was starting to see his plan fall into shambles. There was even one guy who gave Eugeo some chocolate as a thank you for something and Kirito was beginning to wonder whether he shouldn’t simply give up now and go home. But that would look too much like fleeing, so maybe he should give him the chocolate after all. He’d made it heart-shaped but seeing how oblivious to Kirito’s feelings Eugeo seemed to be, he’d be able to laugh off even that. After all, Eugeo hadn’t noticed anything during the two years they had spent together in Underworld.</p><p>Kirito averted his gaze from the spectacle, deciding to make himself ready for class, and almost sat down on a chocolate somebody had put on his chair. Thankfully nobody heard his embarrassingly high yelp. He raised an eyebrow, wondering who would be careless enough to put Valentine’s chocolate on a chair of all places. Before the Sword Art Online incident he had only ever gotten chocolate from his mother, having grown too far apart from his sister to exchange more than a few words whenever they met. Afterwards Asuna used to give him chocolate to show her love as long as they had been a couple, which hadn’t lasted very long. Looking at how happy she was with Yuuki, he couldn’t blame her.</p><p>However, having many female friends meant that the majority of them were kind enough to give him obligatory chocolate, so he wasn’t left wanting or anything.</p><p>Well... if Eugeo decided to give him some, he would be ecstatic...</p><p>But, that was only a pipe dream for now.</p><p>If he got his courage together to give Eugeo the chocolate he had made, he was sure he would get a present on White Day, since Eugeo was a nice and proper guy. No matter how cheap it seemed, Kirito was looking forward to that even if he ended up passing off his chocolate as obligatory. Getting something from Eugeo and being able to pretend even for a second that his feelings were requited sounded nice.</p><p>Kirito had been examining the chocolate casually, looking for an indicator of whose it was. He’d suspected Lisbeth doing it as a joke of sorts until he saw a little card attached with a message for him. Reading through it thrice still didn’t change the content. The note might have been meant for Kirito but it merely asked him to give on the chocolate to Eugeo since they were to shy to do it themselves.</p><p>“Kirito, do you know where Alice is?”</p><p>For the second time that day Eugeo’s voice made Kirito jump into the air. Without even thinking about it, Kirito found himself stuffing the chocolate he was meant to give on to Eugeo into his bag, his wide eyes meeting Eugeo’s confused gaze.</p><p>“Alice?”, he repeated, suspicion eating at him. Was Eugeo expecting chocolate from her? And if he did, did that mean he still liked her after all? No, if he had really asked because he hoped to get chocolate from her, he definitely still liked her. Why else would he go through the trouble of searching for her specifically? He definitely had gotten enough chocolate by now to keep him busy for the month after all. Kirito tried to keep his next words casual, leaning his weight against the table. “What do you need her for--“, he let out a surprised shout when the table moved under his weight, Kirito almost falling over backwards before Eugeo grabbed his arm and pulled into the other direction, saving him from probably hurting his back quite badly. For a second he landed in Eugeo’s arms like all those uninspired dramas liked to show and even though he’d pretty much lost all air in his lungs upon impact since Eugeo definitely wasn’t very soft, he suddenly understood while it was a cliché in all those dramas. If Eugeo hadn’t moved back, Kirito would have stayed in his arms longer but he had enough self-restraint to pull back normally, aware of their audience. This would be the perfect moment to give the chocolate to him if they weren’t in the middle of the classroom. Kirito cursed his luck.</p><p>“Did you hurt yourself?”</p><p>“You could check”, Kirito answered despite being pretty humiliated by his misstep but he must not have succeeded in sounding seductive because Eugeo just sighed exasperatedly.</p><p>“I was asked by a teacher to inform Alice of the fact that the committee changed their meeting date to Tuesday.”</p><p>“Seems like you’ll have to wait after class.” The room was already filling with overeager students, the disappointment in some of their faces when they realized nobody had put chocolate under their desks either clearly visible. For a moment Kirito thought he saw a similar expression mirrored on Eugeo’s face before the teacher entered the room and everyone scrambled to go to their seats.</p><p>It couldn’t be. Could it?</p><p>The rest of the day Kirito didn’t hear a single thing the teacher said. He was called to the blackboard once but managed to write down the answer with little problems just by interfering from context what he was probably supposed to do but other than that, Kirito didn’t do a single thing in class that day. He wasn’t the only student distracted and he saw even Eugeo glance outside a few times.</p><p>When lunch came Kirito should have finally taken the opportunity to get rid of the burden in his bag but at this point, Eugeo’s distraction had put him on edge and the little voice in his head that had told him this was a bad idea from the very beginning had started screaming. Kirito was starting to agree with it. Unlike Kirito who had spent a lot of time today looking at Eugeo, Eugeo was obviously searching for a third party, preoccupied enough that he hadn’t even noticed how quiet Kirito had been today. Him being quiet wasn’t as much of a choice as it was a necessity considering that he was pretty sure that his anxiety was trying to kill him. He’d been less nervous fighting to the death before.</p><p>The only thing breaking the monotony of the day were his friends giving them two sets of exactly identical obligatory chocolate. Save for the club he had joined passing around tiny store brought chocolates - since none of them had a girlfriend - those were the only chocolates he got all day.</p><p>Afternoon class proceeded similar to morning class, just with more rejected faces. Kirito hated how much he could empathize with them right now. If he could he would just erase his crush on Eugeo like a pesky computer virus but unless he asked Sugou for his research, it wasn’t possible.</p><p>Kirito needed a break.</p><p>As soon as classes ended Kirito was accosted by a teacher who made him bring some documents to the teachers lounge. The bad feeling that had been following Kirito the whole day intensified when he saw that Eugeo wasn’t waiting for him outside and upon asking a student and hearing that Eugeo had been talking to Alice last he had seen him, he basically ran over to the teachers lounge and put down the documents wherever, uncaring about how rude he seemed.</p><p>Kirito’s feet almost moved by themselves, dashing through the halls and ignoring the few criticizing stares he got. There was a spot in the garden Alice was pretty fond of and he knew that Eugeo and Alice sometimes conversed there, so if she was really giving him chocolate, this was where she would do it. Kirito almost stumbled on the muddy ground but managed to catch himself, only slowing down when he was close to the place. The sunset illuminated the greenery around them beautifully but Kirito only had eyes for the two people standing in front of each other.</p><p>“Thank you Alice, I’ll treasure it.” Eugeo was blushing, a soft, unsteady smile gracing his face while Alice looked straight into his face, similar redness coating her cheeks despite her attempt to stay calm.</p><p>“Don’t. It’ll go bad. Just eat it and tell me what you thought about it.”</p><p>“If it was made by you, Alice, it’s going to be delicious.”</p><p>“Eat it first before praising me.” Despite chiding him, Kirito could tell Eugeo had said the right thing because Alice was definitely pleased.</p><p>“T-This chocolate... is it -- it’s obligatory…?”</p><p>There was no way it was obligatory but Kirito still found himself wishing she’d say it was.</p><p>“It’s not obligatory. Are you still going to accept it?”</p><p>“I also-- I also like you, Alice!” Even Alice seemed to have a hard time being faced with so much honesty because she became visibly flustered at Eugeo’s words, unable to quite meet his eyes any longer. Eugeo on the other hand looked like he was ready to spill his whole heart, something in him being finally let free after so many years of having had to repress his feelings. “I’ve liked you for a long time. So- So, if you were willing to go out with me, there’s nothing that would make me happier.“</p><p>Kirito wanted to disappear.</p><p>He should never have come here. Should never have had any delusions about Eugeo returning his feelings. He was a failure at romance after all. That he had even thought about asking Asuna for help was a joke. How was he supposed to face her after today?</p><p>Ahhh, really, <em>it would be so much better if Kirito had never fallen for Eugeo in the first place.</em></p><p>Instead of leaving however Kirito stayed there for the rest of the conversation, basically frozen in place. Partly it was the fear they’d hear him leave but mostly he just didn’t have the mental space to do anything right now but to stare into the blank air. At least Eugeo had gotten to enjoy Valentine’s. Kirito might hate it after today though.</p><p>Alice left first after agreeing to going out with him in an overly formal way that made it obvious Alice.exe had crashed and needed a reboot of preferably eight hours of sleep and probably five weeks of getting used to the idea.</p><p>Kirito needed to reset his operating system completely.</p><p>As soon as Alice was gone, Kirito moved to leave as well, but slipped onto the grass another time, and despite the fact that he was able to catch himself in time, stumbled into full view. Eugeo looked about as shocked at Kirito’s appearance as Kirito looked at being caught and Kirito decided this day couldn’t get any worse.</p><p>“What are you doing here, Kirito?”</p><p>“Ah, you know, I was just--“, he frantically tried to think of an excuse before the girl’s chocolate came to mind, and he scrambled to open his bag, digging around a little bit while doing his best to hide his own chocolate from view. “Somebody asked me to give you this, so… I was searching for you.”</p><p>Eugeo blinked. “Oh.” His friend didn’t make a move to take it, looking conflicted. He had probably no idea how to reject somebody’s feelings and considering that she had gone through the trouble of making Kirito bring him the chocolate, it was obvious it wasn’t obligatory chocolate. “I don’t think I can accept that one but-“, he looked up, a small frown in his face. “Did something happen? Your face colour is weird.”</p><p>Kirito laughed awkwardly. It sounded like glass smacking against a wall. “I’m fine! I’m just not looking forward to telling the maker of this chocolate that you are taken now.”</p><p>Eugeo blushed a bit in response to his words, looking faintly disapproving. “So you were listening into our conversation after all.”</p><p>“Don’t worry, Eugeo! You were very cool.”</p><p>Eugeo made a protesting sound, moving forward so that his embarrassed scowl was right in front of his face. “You don’t get to make fun of me for how I handled my love confession. You weren’t even supposed to be there!”</p><p>Maybe Kirito felt a little bit hurt about that too. Eugeo had never told him about his hopes that Alice would give him chocolate. If he had Kirito wouldn’t have made a fool out of himself by creating Valentine’s chocolate for his best friend. Really, <em>how stupid.</em> “Why didn’t you tell me…?”</p><p>“... It just feels that whenever I bring up romance you derail the topic with some stupid joke. I just didn’t want to bother you.”</p><p>Honestly, his best friend could be blind sometimes. Or maybe the thought of being together with Kirito was just so far away from the realm of possibilities that it had never even come to mind. He’d even picked up on Tiese’s affections but Kirito was just really no good after all? “I’ll stop making those jokes”, Kirito stated, his voice a little bit chocked up.</p><p>“I’m not mad, so you don’t need to.”</p><p>“No, I will.”</p><p>“If you say so.” Kirito swallowed, trying not to cry. He knew Eugeo didn’t know that Kirito stopping his co-called jokes was tantamount to him giving up on Eugeo but this exchange hurt, this conversation hurt and Kirito wouldn’t be able to keep up his act if this dragged on.</p><p>He was so overwhelmed by the situation that Kirito didn’t realize that Eugeo had put his hand into Kirito’s bag until he heard some rustling. In his distraction the bag must have fallen open enough for Eugeo to spot the decorative paper. “Huh, this isn’t a package I recognize.”</p><p>If Kirito had still been thinking clearly, he wouldn’t have shoved Eugeo’s hand away, but right now the thought of Eugeo finding those hated chocolates full of his pathetic, one-sided feelings was enough to sent him into a panic. Unfortunately Eugeo had already lifted them a good way and Kirito smacking away his hands accomplished nothing more than forcing Eugeo to let go off them, sending them careering right onto the grass, landing into the dirty mud.</p><p>Eugeo leaned down to pick them up right away in spite of Kirito’s behaviour.</p><p>“Wait, no!” Kirito pitched forward, trying to grab the dirtied chocolate packaging out of Eugeo’s hand who evaded out of instinct, looking completely thrown for a loop by Kirito’s behaviour.</p><p>“I wasn’t going to keep it or anything -! And I’m sorry for it landing on the ground but Kirito…”, Eugeo trailed off, his eyes undoubtedly drawn to his name on the card on the package. “It’s for me? And that’s your handwriting. I didn’t think you’d make me chocolate but why hide it…?”</p><p>Eugeo stared at Kirito’s paling face, his black eyes blown-wide with growing distress, and Kirito saw the realization and shock set in Eugeo’s own face. Kirito didn’t give him any time to say anything and instead bolted around, panic guiding his steps. Almost instantly he heard another set of steps follow him and Kirito realized with horror that Eugeo would definitely catch up to him soon. He wasn’t any match for the body Rath had created for him.</p><p>“Kirito, wait!”</p><p>Some students stared at them making a scene on school grounds but Kirito didn’t care he just needed to get away. Out of all the results, this was the worst one. He hadn’t been prepared for this because all of the plans he had made had been made to circumvent exactly this situation. His sight blurred and he took a sharp left turn, Eugeo following behind him easily and even worse while he could feel his own steps start to flounder, Eugeo was still going strong, about to catch him.</p><p>
  <em>“Don’t follow me!”</em>
</p><p>Eugeo faltered behind him.</p><p>“Kirito--“</p><p>“Leave me be! How- how obvious do I have to make it- make it that I want to be alone?!“, his words came out strangled between pants, his legs finally giving up and Kirito crashed, landing hard on his elbows. He hated today. He hated Valentine’s. He hated his stupid, one-sided love for his best friend.</p><p>He hated himself for having been dumb enough to hope he had a chance.</p><p>Eugeo stopped more elegantly behind him, making a sound as if he was going to talk before stopping himself. Kirito was sure he had been about to ask whether he was all right again. Of course he wasn’t all right. “Kirito, that chocolate…”</p><p>“I don’t want to talk about it. Pretend you didn’t see anything.”</p><p>“But--“</p><p><em>“Pretend you didn’t see anything.”</em> Eugeo didn’t protest again and Kirito stood up, ignoring the various places on his body that ached. The dam had finally burst but as long as Kirito stayed turned around Eugeo wouldn’t be able to see his tears. At the very least he’d spare Eugeo that discomfort. “I’m going home. That thing… throw it away.”</p><p>“Discarding it is--!“</p><p>“Do me that favour. I want you to throw it away, so it’s fine.” That thing deserved to be in the trash together with his feelings.</p><p>“What are you going to do?”</p><p>“I’m going home. I’ll probably… not answer anything today even if you sent me a message. Tomorrow I’ll go back to normal.”</p><p>“To normal… to normal, huh? Kirito, I’m sorry, I don’t know what to do in such a situation…”</p><p>“It’s fine. You don’t have to do anything. I didn’t mean to burden you with any of that, so I’ll apologize.”</p><p>“Hey, Kirito, can you turn around?”</p><p>“I will not turn around.”</p><p>Eugeo fell silent and Kirito took that as his cue to leave. One of their classmates probably thought he was a complete weirdo because he kept his head turned around the whole time until she had walked by him but at least she didn’t see his crying face. Maybe she guessed. Maybe Eugeo had guessed the truth too.</p><p>As soon as he was home he vanished into his room before any of his family members could spot him, his phone chiming a few minutes after he had closed the door behind him. It was a text from Asuna asking him how it had went. This time Kirito didn’t stop himself from crying no matter how pathetic he felt.</p><p>He was such a fool.</p><p>What did he do if Eugeo distanced himself after this? He didn’t want to lose his best friend over this.</p><p>Kirito should never have attempted to confess in the first place.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Today is Valentine's and this came to mind. I'm sorry.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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